“This coupled with already younger midwives leaving the profession due to workforce pressures such as understaffing causing burnout, in addition to seven years of NHS pay restraint, have certainly been factors that have deterred students from applying for midwifery courses in England.

She said the NHS in England is 3,500 midwives short of what is needed to deliver safe, high-quality care.

What about the drop of older students applying?

Professor Bourke said many of those who previously chose midwifery as a career did so after being inspired by the care they received while pregnant.

“Also, currently a large proportion of the midwifery student base hold other degrees or educational qualifications relevant to healthcare and these are the type of people the NHS so badly needs and we should be doing everything we can to attract and retain the brightest and best students to midwifery.”

She added that the RCM welcomes the recent announcement by Health and Social Secretary Jeremy Hunt to train more than 3,000 midwives. These places will be rolled out over the next four years.

What does the Government say?

There are still more candidates than available places. There were five candidates for every one available spot last year, according to Sky.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said its priority is to get more midwives working for the NHS. “We increased the number of midwifery training places available by 25 per cent, allowing more people to study midwifery than ever before.

“Any decrease in the number of applications must be seen in the context of this significant increase in the number of places available – and places remain oversubscribed.”

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